The present invention relates to further improvements in food handling as described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,117,809, the disclosure of which is incorporated by reference herein. In particular, the present invention relates, on one hand, to a MRE-type flameless heater for accommodating a single commercial shelf-stable meal for use, e.g., by campers, hikers and the like and, on the other hand, to a heater for accommodating a group meal tray for, e.g. disaster relief, military applications, group camping (scouting and the like) and other instances where a group of people do not have access to standard food heating equipment, both of which heaters avoid the problems of product uniformity and low production rates.
Generally speaking, the two types of food heater embodiments in accordance with the present invention comprise the tray for holding the meal and the heater pad constructed in accordance with the principles described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,117,809. The single meal embodiment utilizes a commercial shelf-stable meal, e.g. a 10 ounce meal of the type sold by Land-O-Frost, or meals of other suppliers such as Hormel.